New small business owners often hear that they should take their businesses out in to the social networking sites.  The reasons are varied, but one of the loudest voices says that you will be able to hear and respond to your customers’ concerns.  The Ann Taylor Loft recently executed a perfect example of this concept.

The entire story is summed up well here on the Mashable site, so I won’t repeat that.  But the highlights are this:  ATL posted a Facebook photo with a model in a pair of cargo pants that included a “click to buy” option.  A discussion developed among followers that questioned whether those pants would look good on any woman that was not 5’10” and rail thin.  ATL photographed their own employees, from size 2 to 12 and 5’3” to 5”10”, in outfits that featured those pants and posted the photos the following day.

This is a perfect example of using social network marketing to monitor the pulse of your business, to respond to real customer concerns, and to demonstrate a professional customer service attitude.  At that point, selling pants was just gravy.  That the company responded so positively and so quickly that they maintained – even increased – customer loyalty was the win.

Tags: Social Network Marketing